In a crowded visual landscape where brands and creatives compete for attention, standing out isn’t just a goal — it’s a necessity. Enter neon printing, a bold and electrifying advancement that infuses high-definition printing with brilliant, eye-catching color. By using fluorescent inks that are only compatible with select specialty printers, neon printing opens up a whole new dimension of visual expression, delivering high-energy vibrancy that standard CMYK printing simply can’t achieve.

In this blog, we’ll provide a brief overview of neon printing, explore its benefits, identify the best types of projects for fluorescent inks, and outline a few key limitations to keep in mind. Whether you’re a commercial interior designer, retail brand manager, or multimedia artist, this guide will help you decide when and how to leverage the brilliance of neon printing to make your next project unforgettable.

ABOUT NEON PRINTING

Neon printing uses fluorescent inks to create vibrant, attention-grabbing visuals that push beyond the traditional color range of standard CMYK color printing. Unlike CMYK process colors — which blend cyan, magenta, yellow, and black to produce a range of hues — neon inks can both be printed on their own as pure spot colors, as well as mixed with CMYK to achieve a wider color gamut than with process color alone. By mixing CMYK color and neon pink and/or neon yellow inks, our specialty printer, the swissQprint Kudu, can produce prints with various shades of fluorescent pinks, yellows, oranges, and some reds, greens, and purples.

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BENEFITS

Neon printing offers a range of advantages that go beyond traditional CMYK process color printing, making it a powerful tool for impactful visual marketing.

Color Gamut

Integrated fluorescent inks allow for a broader range of hues than standard CMYK, enabling more accurate color matching for brands that rely on vibrant tones. Our specialty printer combines neon spot color ink dots with CMYK process color ink dots, creating colors that typical printing processes used by other large-format printers cannot achieve.

Visual Impact & Hierarchy

Another major benefit lies in visual impact. If your graphics will be competing for viewer attention, eye-catching neon printing will give you a leg up on your competition. Then, once you have someone’s attention, fluorescent inks can be strategically used to create visual hierarchy within a design. They can guide where the viewer looks first, highlight important details, and emphasize calls-to-action — an especially powerful tool in retail environments where quick consumer engagement is essential.

Low-Light Visibility

Neon prints are highly visible from a distance and in low-light conditions, making them ideal for bars, restaurants, clubs, entertainment venues, and immersive event installations. Fluorescent inks also glow under black light, so if you need glow-in-the-dark signage for a club or laser tag arena, we’re your printer!

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IS NEON PRINTING FOR YOU?

From high-energy retail displays to immersive low-light environments, neon printing has carved out a unique niche in the vast world of large-format printing.

Retail Graphics

Neon printing brings a bold, electrifying edge to large-format graphics, making it the perfect fit for brands that aim to captivate and inspire action. While we’ve noticed that athletic and fashion retailers most often ask about neon printing capabilities, we’d argue that fluorescent inks could also greatly enhance the signage and displays in a variety of indoor shops including bodegas, candy shops, electronic stores, toy stores, party supply stores, mall kiosks, and art supply stores.

Environmental Spaces

The intensity of neon colors makes them particularly suited to high-energy spaces like fitness centers and concert venues. Similarly, low-light or black-light environments — such as bars, nightclubs, laser tag arenas, and dimly lit restaurants — are ideal for neon prints.

Exhibition & Trade Shows

What better way to standout amongst hundreds of other booths in an event space than with exceptionally vibrant graphics? Neon printing lends itself well to exhibition and trade show booth creation where visual impact is paramount.

Art Installations

Depending on your medium — digital art or photography vs.something physical, such as paint, charcoals, textiles, ceramics, or glass — fluorescent inks can either bring your work to life or support its delivery. Use fluorescent inks to transform your brilliant digital art to prints or turn your digital photography into fantastical neon masterpieces. Display physical art on custom pedestals that are wrapped in printed neon vinyl, or surround your work in printed floor, wall, and ceiling graphics to create an immersive experience. If you’d like to get particularly creative, blend neon prints with other mediums to create your own type of mixed media. The integration options are incredibly versatile, so we’ll leave it to your imagination.

Brand Seeding Kits

Finally, brand seeding kits can use neon printing to create unforgettable unboxing experiences. Seeding kits, also known as PR or media kits, are a highly customized way fora brand to package and deliver their product to specialty individuals. Sports brands, electronic retailers, design agencies, marketing agencies, and fulfillment and activation businesses are all companies that frequently find success with this direct marketing strategy. When paired with other highly customized elements — think translucent materials, lighting, moving compartments, a temperature-controlled climate, motion-activated sound, and never-ending infinity mirrors — fluorescent inks can ensure your seeding kit will leave a lasting impression on the recipient.

CONSIDERATIONS

While neon printing offers exceptional visual appeal and creative flexibility, there are several important limitations to be aware of when planning your project.

Indoor Use Only

First and foremost, neon prints are intended for indoor use only. While direct exposure to the sun will cause regular CMYK process inks to fade slowly over time, the effect on neon inks is compounded exponentially. Fluorescent pigments degrade quickly when exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light rays, so all neon graphics must live indoors away from direct sunlight, under lighting with low levels of UV.

Color Range

While florescent inks enable us to achieve an increased overall color range, our neon color range is limited to the specific fluorescent inks we have. As previously mentioned, our specialty printer boasts neon pink and neon yellow ink channels. Combined, these can achieve pure neon orange, and various shades of fluorescent pinks, yellows, oranges, and some reds, greens and purples.

Printing Surface

Another key consideration is the printing surface. For neon inks to achieve their full vibrancy, they must be printed on a white base. Surfaces like raw wood or kraft paper won’t yield the same brilliant effect unless a layer of white ink is applied underneath. Fortunately, we can print a white under layer on most materials to solve this, but it’s a factor to consider during material selection.

Specialty Software

The specialty software used to prepare neon ink files for printing is proprietary, so all neon color replacements and separations must be done in-house by our full-service design team. While we encourage clients to design in CMYK, any elements intended for neon output must be identified clearly so we can convert them accurately.

To ensure precise color matching, we use the TOUCH7 neon swatch system. Clients can select specific swatches from printed color charts available by appointment at our facility or by mail. Unfortunately, due to licensing restrictions, we cannot share digital versions of the swatch files or the software that contains the neon builds.

Once swatches are chosen, we’ll create both digital and press proofs for you to review. Digital proofs are provided for all files and will indicate the design intent, but the rendered electronic images should not be used for ensuring and approving color matching. This is where press proofs come in. Fluorescent inks do not display accurately on screens, so seeing them in-person is the best way to confirm they meet your color goals. Again, you can make an appointment to view the press proofs in our color booth, or we can send them by mail. After receiving client approval of both proofs, we will proceed to full production.

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LET’S GET STARTED

Neon printing is more than just a visual effect — it's a strategic choice for brands looking to deliver memorable, high-impact experiences. With its ability to produce vivid, fluorescent colors that transcend the limitations of CMYK, neon printing offers unmatched potential for a wide range of applications. If you’d like to enter the world of neon printing, send us a message! We’d love to help you bring your fluorescent big idea to life.